Choices
by Lizzy635
Summary: Alternate ending to 24 Season 5 episode nr 12. Jack/Chloe/Edgar.


**Choices**

„Code 6. Everybody out, now!"

As the Director of CTU gave out the order, the workers of CTU started running out of the bullpen as fast as they could. Only the ones who couldn't just leave right away, stayed to keep working on other options besides leaving the building. One of those people was Chloe O'Brian. As everyone were in panic, she could have really used Jack's help there because she felt she was the only one calm enough to think of the ways to keep the situation under control. Jack was good at that too, but he, unfortunately, was playing hero somewhere else. From the corner of her eye she saw that the love of his life and his daughter couldn't leave the building anymore. The blond woman yelled that the nerve gas was making its way from the outside in, so there was no way anyone got out, now. And although Jack had Audrey to keep his daughter safe, she knew that there wasn't much Audrey could do and everyone kind of hoped that dear old Chloe would be able to save their necks with her techno-skills and that included Jack. So if she didn't succeed, it would be her that got the cold look from him, not Audrey, before he died of an excruciating death. That is, if she didn't die sooner. Then, as she didn't have enough to do, the phone rang and of course there was no one to answer it but her.

„Chloe, what's going on?"

„Edgar!" She screeched. The fact that he went to look for one of the analysts before that catastrophe found CTU, had totally slipped her mind, not to mention the fact that she had sent him there, „Edgar, you need to get back here ASAP, but don't attempt to get out of the building, you won't be able to, ok? Do you understand me?."

„Yeah, I'll be there in a minute. Wait for me!"

And then he hung up. And she had a job to do.

„Chloe, which rooms can we seal?" Bill Buchanan's voice but of course now they were all circled around her desk like she was some kind of a miracle worker_. I hate this job_, she thought to herself.

„I'm working on it," came the answer in a tone she couldn't usually afford to use with her boss. But those were the desperate times and she really could have used some help an wasn't helping.

„Chloe, what rooms can you lock down?" _You have got to be kidding me_! But this time it was Jack.

„HOLD ON." Now she really was losing her patience with them and she didn't hold back when answering Jack's question by rising her voice. Something he often does with her, but she rarely with him. Now was one of those rare times that she just couldn't deal with his expectancies.

What really made her pissed, was the fact that he asked it in a calm voice, expecting her to have a straight answer for him right then and there not considering that she did everything humanly possible to avert this crisis. Sometimes it was hard for her when he seemed to take her for granted. Although she knew deep down that wasn't the case. He would be lost without her. They both knew it.

She then continued to type furiously as the answer they were all waiting to know appeared on her screen.

"We can lock down the situation room, the upper offices and clinic isolation"

Momentarily relieved that they weren't waiting on her anymore and Jack and Bill could start ushering people to the situation room, she continued to work, setting things up so that there wouldn't be much to do once they were all in the there. She found that they had a bit more than 3 minutes before the nerve gas would be where she sat just then and she remembered Edgar and looked around to see if he was there yet. The bullpen was almost empty and she didn't see him up with Bill nor in the situation room. And panic set in and she looked in the direction he was suppose to come from.

Jack had everyone in the situation room and was running towards it himself. When he was about to step in he glanced to see if everyone that mattered to him were there. She saw Audrey, Kim with her boyfriend but he didn't see Chloe there. Confused for a moment, he looked around the room and saw the confusion mirroring from Audrey's face who was about to say something. But Kim knew him well and directed her eyes where Chloe was still sitting nervously looking around. When he saw her like that he knew something was wrong but he also knew that whatever it was, she had to forget it for now.

"Chloe, get here NOW!" he yelled to get her attention.

She was so wrapped up in her thoughts about Edgar that she forgot that they were all waiting for her. She didn't know what to do as Jack stood at the doorway of the situation room growing more and more impatient with her.

"Jack, I can't. I need to wait for Edgar. He should be here in any second."

Something flickered on his face for a second before turning into a tremendous mix of horror and determination as he quickly closed the distance between them and came to stand beside her in an unfairly close proximity for her to stand her ground with this. Before he could say anything, she continued.

"Listen, I got everything set up. We should have nearly 3 minutes before it's here. Just to be sure, if he's not here in two minutes, I'll get in the situation room and we'll lock the doors. If something goes wrong or you don't want to wait any longer, all you need to do is press down ctrl+F5 at the same time and then click Enter."

He continued to look at her with an incredible amount of disbelief and horror.

"No!" was all he could answer to that while shaking his head. He couldn't believe she was even suggesting something like that.

"Jack, please, I need to do this. You can shut the room down whenever you want to, but I need to wait here for him. I owe it to him. I'm the one who ordered him to go there," Chloe pleaded with him, her voice full of guilt. "He's my responsibility."

"We don't have time for guilt right now, we have to go in the situation room, Chloe. Now!"

"No, I won't come, I still have about a minute of the time I asked for. Just a little bit more, Jack!" pleaded Chloe, again.

Jack hesitated for a moment, but then he understood that at this point he had to be selfish and he didn't really need to choose whether to risk Chloe's life or not. There was only one life he needed to sacrifice to be sure that everyone else could be saved and that included Chloe. He knew what Edgar meant to her but she meant more to him and he needed to be selfish this time. She would do the same thing, he thought. That's why she would eventually forgive him.

It seemed to her that she had him convinced when all of a sudden he picked her up from that chair and threw her over his shoulder like you would a potato sack. And when all that registered to her, she started to yell for him to put her down, which he of course didn't.

"Jack, put me down or I will never forgive you for this."

"I can live with it," came the only answer she could get from him in response to that statement. …_If it means you're safe _was the part he left out.

That's what kept replaying in her head as he put her down, ordered the men in the room to restrain her if she didn't sit tight. And she did, but not because any effort to fight him and his henchmen would mean starting a battle she couldn't win. She kept looking at him while he did what was needed to be done and she was thinking about his actions, about why he couldn't even risk have her waiting for Edgar for those short seconds. She knew that as much as she wanted to be pissed at him, she once again couldn't. Not because it was the right thing to do, but because she knew that if the situation was reversed, she would have done exactly the same thing_. Of course_, _I would have needed the help of his henchmen for that to happen_, she thought…And besides, there was a chance Edgar did get out hence he not getting there in time. At the light of that thought, she thought that she had acted rather silly by putting Jack in that position. Her chain of thought was interrupted by a sudden "oh, no" from the other side of the room and it had Audrey's tone of voice. She looked around the room and saw everyone looking at one direction, so she turned to look at that direction, too. Having done that, the sight got her standing and hurrying to the glass wall quicker then her male co-workers could do anything. Not that it would have mattered anyway, because the room was sealed.

And there he was, on the other side off the glass, begging them to let him in. She reached the glass and put her palm where his laid on the other side of the glass. She felt tears coming down her cheeks as she had to stand there and shake her head that they couldn't open the doors anymore.

"Chloe…" It was said with an incredible amount of hurt, disbelief and…she tried to name what was the third emotion she saw in his face when it suddenly hit her, _feeling of betrayal_. Feeling betrayed…she had betrayed him. She looked at the watch on her hand which said he still had 15 seconds before the nerve gas reached the bullpen. Chloe turned to look at Jack.

"Jack, please…" she pleaded him.

"I'm sorry…I can't" he answered with a barely audible voice.

She felt like she wasn't really there, anymore. Everything was blurry and happened in slow motion as she turned to look at Edgar again who waited, a glee of hope in his eyes before it was crushed when he saw her expression.

Jack had looked at the scene with great torment, trying to hide the best he could. He started to question his judgment when he too looked at the clock. He would have made it. If he had waited for her, Edgar would be there with them by now. He would have survived. _He would have survived_ kept playing in his head as Edgar suddenly fell on the ground and started trembling, dying of a quick, but never-the-less horrible death.

Then it was quiet, so very quiet for a minute before they had to figure out what to do next. Chloe had turned to look at him and when he saw her expression, he thought that his actions really could have cost him his relationship with Chloe. It wasn't anger or hurt that covered her face, it was nothing. Her eyes were ice cold.

She felt nothing as she looked into to the eyes of the man she felt was responsible for what just happened. Now she was the one feeling betrayed. She didn't care that he was feeling guilty, that he would have made everything right if he had had the change. She wasn't moved by his eyes pleading for forgiveness. She looked at Jack who just 5 minutes ago meant the world to her and felt nothing. She just didn't care anymore as she crumpled on the floor; wiped out, she kept looking at Edgar's dead body.


End file.
